Page:Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India Vol 21.pdf/7

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

PREFACE.

IN this volume I have brought together the reports of my last two tours in Bundelkhand and Rewa, during the cold seasons of 1883-84 and 1884-85. During these tours I visited many places which had not been reported upon by the officers of the Archaeological Survey. The most notable of these places were the great forts of Kalanjara and Ajaygarh, the strongholds of the Chandels of Mahoba, and their religi­ous capital of Khajuralia, which possesses the most famous collection of magnificent temples in Upper India. I have taken the opportunity of giving a complete account of all the Chandel inscriptions at present known. These continue the genealogy for several generations after the fall of Mahoba.

On the south bank of the Jumna, a short distance above Allahabad, I visited a large ruined temple, which had been seen and sketched about 50 years ago by Major Kittoe, who calls it the shrine of Karkotak Nag.

At a short distance, on the way towards Allahabad, I visited a stone building at Chilla, which is said to have been the dwel­ling-house of the two BanAphar heroes Alha and Udal. It is surrounded by a fortified enclosure, and is important as being one of the very few old dwelling-houses that now exist.

In Rewa I made the discovery that the whole valley of the Tons River had been held by the Kalachuri Rajas of Chedi for at least two centuries prior to the advent of the Baghel Rajputs. In the previous year my Assistant Mr. Garrick had found a short inscription on rock near the northern